WiseRatFlames
An unexpected masterpiece
Merolliv
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Lidia Draper
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Payno
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
roger-hepburn
this film is essentially a lark about by some guys from new Zealand and really that is all it is, I don't think when they made the movie the filmmakers were thinking that this was going to be a world wide blockbuster or an intellectual indie thought provoker they simply made a movie that they thought would be fun and hoped that others would as well. I watch movies that are better than this on paper every day- if you break films down to their component parts - but sometimes, just sometimes you enjoy a movie for the sheer fun it gave you. This movie doesn't have a 10 out of 10 script. this movie doesn't have a 10 out of 10 score. this movie doesn't have a 10 out of 10 cast. this movie doesn't have a 10 out of 10 director. this movie doesn't have a 10 out of 10 cinematographer. BUT.... This movie does give 10 out of 10 enjoyment!!There are some great pieces of dialogue and some good set pieces, yes some of the acting is wooden and some of the action-fighting sequences are a bit crappy but they are still 10 out of 10 enjoyable.Listening to some of the critics on this site and you would never watch anything.DO YOUR SELF A FAVOUR SIT DOWN WATCH THIS WITH YOUR FAVOURITE POISON AND ENJOY!!No it isn't Shakespeare or Polanski or Hitchcock or even Michael Mann it just fun.
ragabonds
Don't let the fact that this film is low budget put you off. I know it's annoying to watch low budget films with it's shaky camera action (which you don't see that often in this film just a bit at the beginning with the bike), but the story line and the dialogue in this film makes up for the fact that it's low budget. The film moves at a fast pace and at no point was I bored. Now on the other hand if they had invested more in this film and shot it at a better location, I'd say this would be a pretty big hit. If this was picked up by a major Hollywood production house, I'd definitely give this film a 10/10. Thoroughly enjoyed the action and dialogue.
birck
It's not a bad job. The characters are convincing, even if some of the action isn't. If you can accept stylized, unconvincing violence (no blood anywhere), which I don't mind, the story has some new twists. The first two thirds seem a bit aimless, like Mean Streets down under, just a tale of four thugs who seem to have an appointment to keep in the afternoon, and manage to keep it, in spite of the befuddled police they have to deal with in New Zealand. It's funny; it could have been funnier, but for something I never heard of before a street vendor offered it to me, it ain't bad. The acting is generally acceptable; the camera-work is utilitarian. Technically, it succeeds in some ways, e.g., the steadicam work, but fails in others, e.g., under- and over-exposure, or their digital equivalents. The dialogue is in Kiwi, i.e., "english", but it would benefit from subtitles, also in English, as in The Harder They Come. It's worth noting that the vaunted technical achievement (long, uncut shots) was barely noticeable-which means that it did what it was supposed to do without drawing attention to itself.
peepingtomcat
Alas, Francis Ford Coppola was wrong. The digital camera revolution has not resulted in an explosion of talent gracing our screens. All it has delivered is the never ending glut of amateur material, posturing as cinema, that clog the shelves of video stores worldwide. YOU MOVE YOU DIE is a continuation of this never ending cycle of sub-mediocre, ego- driven and wholly wretched home-movies.Suffering through YOU MOVE YOU DIE is like watching a gang of young schoolboys, inspired by a movie they just saw, playing Goodies and Baddies as they chase each other around the drab back streets of their boring small town. They play-fight and play-act, and do all things their parents would frown upon (like swearing and smoking). The jolly romp is all made up on the spur of the moment and after an hour or so, they're so darn tuckered out from all the tussling and screaming and pointlessness of it all, so they simply...stop. Now imagine a group of age-retarded adult men in their thirties, doing the above. Yet sadder still, is their friend with a video-camera who's followed them around as they playact like little kids- bored during the summer holidays. Then afterwards, they all wearily (but satisfied and with much backslapping) go back home to endlessly watch themselves replayed on telly, over fizzy drinks and chips as they collectively fantasize about hanging out with Tarantino.That pretty much sums up wrist-slitting banality that is YOU MOVE YOU DIE.